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| {{otheruses}} | |||
| ] (detail), ] ], ] (], ])]] | |||
| '''Hercules''' is the ] name used in ] for the divinity corresponding to the ] hero ''']''' (or '''Herakles'''), the Roman name being a ] of the Greek name. He was son of ] and grandson of Theseus, the Roman counterpart to the Greek ] ] and the mortal ]. He was made to perform twelve great tasks, called ''']''' and became a god. | |||
| In popular culture the Romans adopted the Etruscan '''Hercle''', a hero-figure that had already been influenced by Greek culture, especially in the conventions of his representation, but who had experienced an autonomous development. Etruscan Hercle appears in the elaborate illustrative engraved designs on the backs of Etruscan bronze mirrors made during the ], which were favoured ]. Their specific literary references have been lost, with the loss of all Etruscan literature. | |||
| This Hercle/Hercules, the Hercle of the ejaculation "Mehercle!", remained a popular cult figure in the Roman legions. The literary Greek versions of his life and works were appropriated by literate Romans from the ] onwards, essentially unchanged, but Latin literature of Hercules added anecdotal detail of its own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Western Mediterranean. Details of the Greek ], which mixed ] libations and uneaten holocausts with Olympian services, were adapted to specifically Roman requirements as well, as Hercules became the founding figure of ] and other places, and his cult became entwined with Imperial cult, as shown in surviving frescoes in the Herculanean ''collegium'' that was devoted to Hercules. | |||
| Roman images of Hercules were modelled upon Hellenistic Greek images and might be contrasted with the images of Heracles that appear in Attic vase-painting ''(see ]).'' One aspect of Greek Heracles was not adopted by Roman culture: the ambivalent relationship with his patroness/antagonist ] that was an archaic aspect of "Hera's man", Heracles. | |||
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